Mr. Price

Character Analysis

There is no love lost between Fanny and her father. Mr. Price scarcely notices Fanny at all when she comes home to visit. And Fanny disapproves of her drunk, loud, and rude father. He often embarrasses her and she desperately wants to keep him away from Henry.

[To] her many other sources of uneasiness was added the severe one of shame for the home in which he found her. She might scold herself for the weakness, but there was no scolding it away. She was ashamed, and she would have been yet more ashamed of her father than of all the rest. (41.6)

Fanny's father stands in direct contrast to Sir Thomas Bertram who, for all his failings, eventually becomes Fanny's surrogate father figure and then father-in-law, to boot. Of course, for all his problems, Mr. Price's kids, on the whole, actually seem to turn out better than Sir Thomas's kids. The children don't cause any scandals, the Price sons have decent jobs for the most part, and Susan gets the equivalent of the Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory and moves to Mansfield Park too.